Bridging
Octane sets lending peak with £92m in Q1
Octane Capital completed £92m of new lending in the first three months of 2021 – the biggest quarter for the business since it launched in 2017.
The firm said the figure was a 121 per cent increase on the final three months of 2020.
It reported that completions were balanced evenly across the lender’s categories: refurbishment, bridging and developer exit loans, and medium-term buy-to-let products.
And Octane added that application numbers also increased by 126 per cent on the October to December period, with the stamp duty holiday and a resurgence in buy-to-let being the key drivers of this activity.
Earlier this month the lender opened availability for its buy-to-let products to the whole broker market.
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Jonathan Samuels (pictured), CEO of Octane Capital, said: “The first three months of the year have been the most frantic we’ve ever experienced.
“The property market is absolutely booming due to the stamp duty holiday and our buy-to-let product is proving a particular hit with brokers and their landlord clients.”
He added that the lender had become a life cycle lender for brokers, providing bridges, then funding the refurbishments then moving borrowers onto buy-to-let loans.